Almost Turkish Recipes

Zucchini Mousakka with Garbanzo Beans (Nohutlu Kabak Musakka)

There is something special about musakka recipes; they always turn out great. Although musakka, the term Arabic in origin, does not resemble the Arabic dish which is a kind of cold eggplant appetizer; although musakka means a different dish in a lot of countries such as Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, and Turkey; and although the musakka dish has numerous versions even in one country, a musakka dish is always delicious. In Turkish cuisine musakka is usually prepared with fried eggplant, tomato, peppers, and ground meat.

This zucchini musakka recipe comes from Musa Dağdeviren,the owner and chef of famous Çiya Restaurant in İstanbul. I had also tried his mualle recipe before. This is not well-known or traditional recipe since it uses garbanzo beans. I replaced ground lamb with ground beef and it is still delicious. If you want to try it with ground lamb, you can find the original recipe here.

leavesleft- TVP, textured vegetable protein, or TSP, textured soy protein , is defatted soy flour. It's high in protein and a great substitute for meat. You can find it at markets in the bulk section or prepacked.